The Rolling Stone Rock 'n' Roll Reader

by Ben Fong-Torres (Editor), Rolling Stone Magazine

An ENORMOUS amount of material, all from 1967-1972. 783 pages. Articles and interviews 16 concerning The Beatles, 14 concerning The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan 8 , Jefferson Airplane 7, The Doors 6, Jimi Hendrix 6, Janis Joplin 5, Frank Zappa and the Mothers 3, CSN &Y 3, Traffic 3, The Byrds 3, Blood Sweat and Tears 3, PLUS 1 or 2 each from the following: Otis Redding, The Greatful Dead, the Band, Captain Beefheart, Johnny Cash, Elvis, Randy Newman, little Richard, Carl Perkins, Donovan, BB King, Joan Baez, The Rascals, Jethro Tull, Van Morrison, Jerry Lee Lewis and many more.

Genres: Music

783 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

Benjamin Fong-Torres (Fāng Zhènháo) is an American rock journalist, author, and broadcaster best known for his association with Rolling Stone magazine (through 1981) and the San Francisco Chronicle (from around 1982).

Due to the Chinese Exclusion Act, Fong-Torres' father, Ricardo Fong-Torres (born Fong Kwok Seung), changed his surname to Torres and posed as a Filipino citizen in order to emigrate to the United States. His family later adopted the hyphenated surname, Fong-Torres. He is the brother of Shirley Fong-Torres.

He was portrayed in the 2000 film Almost Famous by actor Terry Chen. The fictional version of Fong-Torres was character William Miller's editor at Rolling Stone.

In real life, Fong-Torres was a writer and senior editor of Rolling Stone from almost the magazine's inception. He conducted interviews for Rolling Stone of entertainment figures including Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, comedian Steve Martin and Linda Ronstadt's first cover story in 1975. A Fong-Torres interview with Ray Charles was awarded the Deems Taylor Award for Magazine Writing in 1974.

Fong-Torres was also a rock DJ for San Francisco radio station KSAN-FM in the 1970s. On television, he is the Emmy Award-winning co-anchor of the Chinese New Year Parade broadcast on KTVU (Fox) in San Francisco. In recent years, he has published Hickory Wind, a biography of Gram Parsons; The Rice Room, a memoir; The Hits Just Keep on Coming, a history of Top 40 radio, and two compilations of past articles, Not Fade Away and Becoming Almost Famous (published in May 2006). His book with The Doors (The Doors By The Doors) was published by Hyperion in November 2006. Since July 2005, he has written the bi-weekly column "Radio Waves" in the San Francisco Chronicle's Sunday Datebook. He is also a contributing editor to Parade magazine, and the music editor for TONEAudio, a web-based audio publication. He is now the host of "Backstage" which is aired from 7-9 am and 7-9 pm on San Francisco's KFRC-FM.

Reviews

[Phil Overeem · Rating 4 out of 5]

Have had this sitting on my shelf for years--I had forgotten I bought it, and almost bought it again for 10 times the price I got it for originally--then just tore into it. Like drinking water while thirsty. Funny reading reportage on folks like Sly Stone, Beefheart, Jerry Butler, late '60s Memphis, Randy Newman, Jerry Lee from the time period where they were on fire. Especially the Sly piece...but it just made me sadder that that innovator's career was self-truncated.